Philippines Women

Gilas Pilipinas Women head into Division A of the FIBA Women's Asia Cup off the back of consecutive sixth-place finishes, in 2023 and 2025, results that kept them in the top tier and opened the door to the 2026 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup pre-qualifying tournaments. A World Cup or Olympic berth has still eluded the programme.

The regional stage is where the identity has been built. Three straight Southeast Asian Games titles, in 2019, 2021 and 2023, turned a team that once settled for silver into the team others in the region now have to solve. The breakthrough final came in 2019, when they beat Thailand 91-71 for a first-ever gold in the 5x5 competition at that tournament, after finishing runners-up in 2011 and 2013 under the old Perlas Pilipinas name.

That name change traces back to administrative upheaval. The Basketball Association of the Philippines, which had run the women's side inconsistently since the team's debut at the 1965 Asian Basketball Confederation Championship, was dissolved and replaced by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas in 2007. The federation rebuilt around collegiate players under the Perlas Pilipinas banner, then in 2015 brought in Patrick Aquino as head coach for a reset that leaned on younger domestic talent alongside players with experience abroad — a rebuild that paid off with promotion to Division A and a SEABA Championship title in 2016. In May 2019, the SBP folded the women's programme into the unified Gilas Pilipinas name carried by the men's team.

Games against Thailand, Indonesia and Chinese Taipei carry the sharpest edge in the region.

Home games are split between PhilSports Arena and the 14,429-seat Smart Araneta Coliseum in Manila, where the SEA Games gold in front of a home crowd remains the high point of the team's run in blue and white.